Well done, Walter. I have been roaming the local wilderness this afternoon with my 2x3 format trying the mental trick of ignoring the extra third. I may have had some fortune (good) in that respect, but it awaits a later date for discovery.

The day started well: I took the milk carton from the fridge and poured myself the right quantity to make the flakes edible, and then thought about filling the orange juice glass in order to wash down the first set of pills of the day.

On reopening the fridge I noted that the orange juice was finished, so I opened another fresh carton and poured a meaure into the glass. I now had milk in the flakes and milk in the glass. I then took another fresh carton, opened that, poured the milk from the glasss into the flakes, swirled it under the tap, and then poured myself some orange juice for the pills.

The fridge now contains two opened cartons of milk and one opened one of orange juice. God help me tomorrow morning. I trust that the jar of marmalade and the one of local honey will not seek to play a rôle in this saga of approaching new youthfulness.

With that in mind, I went out for lunch and a walk. It was bloody freezing again: sunny but windy as hell. On going back home I realised that the only thing to do was take myself back out with a different jacket and the D700 with its new/old 2/35mm appendage. Which I did. I was thinking Hasselblad 500 CM the while, and this is a memento from a moment when I forgot.

Have you noticed how pleasant it is to listen to Van Morrison's Down the Road whilst you work at the computer?

But it has been a wonderful opportunity to get things in perspective again. I had been considering ditching a lot of the LF kit - but not now.

Will all your opened containers mean that all the fluids contained therein will form congealed skins in unison?W

Today it all went well in the breakfast kitchen, then I wrote you a lengthy reply to this post and the machine blew it into space. I keep on telling myself that I must not use the LuLa typing space provided, but that I should write in Word and then cut'n'paste, but in the heat of the moment I forget.

Elsewhere on the pages of LuLa a discussion of the relative values of different language, and whether emotion does or does not translate quite as intended. I think it does.

Anyway, another 2/35mm adventure into the land of the 'should carry a tripod in order to focus the damned thing' country. It's one thing shooting at zillionths of a second, but quite another keeping the blood pumping through the veins without moving the rest of the edifice. I mean, the camera stays focussed, but I can't.

A tiny step into the mysteries of social mobility persuaded the faux Swedish lady to set her eyes on this.

Pity the owners of this property: they are blighted by ancient right of way and even the poor giant, black mutt has to live at the end of a short chain. In the years I've known him (he must be Mk3 or Mk4) his life consists of sleeping it all away. A guard dog without the ability to guard.

As I forgot to switch on the electric blanket and it's turned damned cold again today, I might as well play about on the typist's chair until the bed becomes hospìtable, and do something to pass the couple of hours. I thought a little warning note on the use of Velvia might not be out of place.

Shot some many years ago, probably on the F4s, with my 3.5/35mm PC Nikkor, on Velvia which, combined with a polariser, was just too much of a good thing... Impossible to rescue in colour, it turned into something strikingly odd in black/white. I quite like it, in spite of its obvious limitations. I originally scanned this to see how the lens would look examined on a monitor rather than via a loupe; I opted to pass, and to buy a 2/35mm straight instead. Perhaps I should have gone for the PC. Maybe not.

Regardless, I still think that scanned, properly exposed colour tranny makes more effective b/white than digital; Kodachrome proved that to my personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, I don't have more than a couple of strips of b/white negs left with which to make further tests to see how that would have turned out.

Oh, and if your electric blanket takes a couple of hours to get the bed hospitable, perhaps you should try plugging it in.

Thank you, Walter.

I do wish - as too does Keith, apparently - that Nikon would finally make great, dependable wide shifters... it would be lovely to be able to use up the time left me wandering about until either I or the money runs out, visiting interesting places without programme. Of course, I'm joking: if either runs out then there would be no printing opportunity, even if actual paper printing isn't on the cards, but I'd at least like to see what I got up there on the monitor! That wasn't necessarily the case with models - the shoot was the buzz.

I am now convinced more than ever that doing the kind of shot above is pointless unless one can correct for verticals; I'm not much bothered by infinite DOF - never was - accepting the blur as part of the look/nature of the process, even a possible advantage at times, but I must confess a dislike for upwards or downwards convergence of buildings! As much as I didn't enjoy LF cameras, I guess certain plusses rubbed off.

I hear you. I can appreciate the work of others who handle convergence and divergence in their stride but I have to confess the utmost difficulty untethering myself from Renaissance perspective. Long live the view camera!!

Awoke to this this morning; decided with minimal internal conflict that I wasn't going to make my own lunch today, so I rang the restaurant to book a table for one, and there was no reply. Either the tourist season is so bad it's not worth opening on Sundays or they have my number on record and don't want to sacrifice a table for one, but anyway, I'm not staying home!

It's been much like this all week; lucky I shot my fake 'blad when I did!

;-)

Rob C

P.S. It was open, and I enjoyed my meal. Pouring, so no walk, but you have to sacrifce something in life.